yoga-time

I thought I was in heaven this morning when I found the yoga studio at the Y not-so-crowded.  It was my first yoga class in well over a year (urgh!).  The few yoga classes I tried to go to last summer were just too crowded for me.  And the instructor went through poses way too quickly.  I had a bad taste about the Y yoga classes until this morning.

It brought me back to my college years where I frequented RubberSoul.  Man how I miss the luxury of practicing yoga 5 times per week (no full-time job, just studying).  At the time, RubberSoul just took a $3-5 donation per class.  You can't find that price anywhere here in Charlotte.  :(

I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite yoga poses.  These are my top 5 poses, mostly focusing on balance, opening the hips, and just overall feel-goodness.  Enjoy.

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 #1  Tree.  My students often laugh at me because I find myself standing like this, minus the praying hands, during class.  Yeah... they think I'm weird. 

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#2  Dancer.  After "tree",  go straight into "dancer".   

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#3  Pigeon.  Opens the hips.  Hurts a little... but a good kind of hurt.  ;)

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 #4  Plow.  I like a variation of plow where I place my knees into my eye sockets.  Or I massage my forehead with my knees.  Sounds weird.  But try it.  You'll love it, too.  Note:  After plow, your body will want the counter pose, "fish".

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 #5  Eagle.  Another balancing pose, similar to "tree".  But this one really opens up my traps and upper shoulders to relieve the stress that tends to build up from being on a computer all day.  Except I don't usually have a cheese-ball smile on my face.  ;)